Mo Said She Was Quirky

by James Kelman (Other Press)

“Mo said she was quirky but it was more than quirky.” “She” is Helen, a struggling single mother and casino worker living in London, and the guiding force in this stream-of-consciousness novel. On the way home from work, Helen spots a man who may or may not be her estranged brother wandering the streets, apparently destitute. Very little else occurs in terms of plot, but Helen’s mind, racing in all directions, creates a fevered, frenetic atmosphere. Kelman portrays the inner workings of human awareness with wisdom and honesty, withholding explicit backstory or explanation. Helen repeats herself, contradicts herself, thinks in fragments. Ideas ricochet off one another by free association, while recurrent anxieties spring up without apparent provocation. “Oh God, where did her head go?” she thinks. “Where did it not go.” Lost in introspection, the story occasionally loses momentum, but the writing is never anything less than alive. ♦

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